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This is abhorrent:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/26/dozens-of-bodies-believed-to-be-refugees-found-on-beach-in-southern-italy
We opened our doors to Ukrainian refugees, as we should have. We should just as well open our doors to refugees from Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
People don't choose to be refugees. They are forced to.
@rysiek@mstdn.socialAnd don't get me started on "economic migrants" BS!
"Economic migrant" is the correct term for an "expat". I am an economic migrant, born in Poland, living in Iceland, and proud of it.
I hate the term "expat" with a passion of a thousand suns. I find it racist, used to artificially differentiate between rich, predominantly white, Northern-born people moving freely and comfortably wherever they want; and destitute, predominantly BIPOC people forced to risk their lives to secure livelihood.
There is this myth that if borders are opened, suddenly a deluge of people will come and somehow flood the local community.
Iceland is tiny, 350k people. It's in the EEA. Everyone in the EU can just move here and start a new life, no work visa required — including from countries that rightwingers used to love scaring people in the North and West with: Poland, Bulgaria, Romania.
Guess what? No deluge. No flood of economic migrants. People don't want to uproot their lives willy-nilly!
And then there's this other myth, of a "Schrödinger's migrant": a person who moves in to a country, and at the same time "steals jobs" and "abuses the welfare system."
Which one is it? Are the refugees coming in and hanging on on state welfare? Or are they "stealing jobs"?
It's neither. Because it's not a zero-sum game. More people means more economic activity, means more jobs. Yes, on some basic level it's that simple.
So what's the deal with the "Schrödinger's migrant", then?
Simple: labor force with access to a strong social safety net (including good welfare system) is expensive to the moneyed classes. It's cheaper to hire people who have no labor protections, no access to welfare, and ideally also no local support network.
It's not about making refugees not come. It's about making sure they never get the protections the local labor force already has.
Why? Because then they become super cheap labor. And a way to dismantle labor protections for everyone!
How?
"Look at those refugees! Businesses are hiring them because they are cheap, they are cheap because they don't have labor protections, ergo labor protections hurt your ability to get hired, my working class friend!" 
That's the narrative.
The problem isn't refugees "stealing jobs", the problem is capitalists being able to skirt labor protections.
The solution is not to block refugees from coming, it's to afford them the same labor protections, and access to welfare and healthcare!
People washing up on Italian and Spanish beaches and dying in cold, dark Białowieża forests in Poland are not members of some barbaric horde trying to take down "Western civilization", steal your job, or hog the welfare system.
They are fellow human beings, with hopes and dreams, making the desperate decision to flee their homes, risk their lives, travel thousands of kilometers in hope of finding a chance to *survive*.
https://oko.press/people-are-already-dying-and-freezing-temperatures-are-coming
They are visible victims of a class war.
As an economic migrant myself I can only say:
Nobody is illegal!
Refugees welcome!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Nw7HbaeWY
And just to be super-clear here: I am glad, a bit proud even, how Ukrainian refugees were welcomed in Poland and other places in the EU. Our support for Ukrainian people must continue.
But it should not be limited to just Ukraine.
People freezing on the Polish-Belarussian border, or dying on rickety boats crossing the Mediterranean deserve our empathy and help just as much.
/end
@rysiek very much true. Repression at the border is one aspect, for your point on exploitable labour the ongoing exclusion - from the formal labour market!
-in the host country is very relevant.
Re
@rysiek Thanks for writing this, I've always abhored the term as well, as an immigrant myself I can totally relate.
The responsibility of security services in the EU in the deaths of refugees - failure to respond urgently to firsthand witness reports of a person in critical medical distress - is much more direct in Poland:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%932022_Belarus%E2%80%93European_Union_border_crisis#2023
Security forces in the EU have also done pushbacks, which are (in principle) illegal in the EU but legalised in Poland:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushback_%28migration%29
Any info on ongoing legal procedures to cancel the illegal Polish law?
@rysiek I’ve always considered there is a difference between expat and migrant. Expats have an expectation of a limited stay in their host country (as I did when working for a year in Japan, for example), whereas migrants have no specific time limit on their stay, and may possibly wish to stay for ever.
@KimSJ that's not my experience of how this term is used in practice.
Does it matter if a destitute BIPOC person wants to move for a year or for good to a Western country? No, they wil be called an "economic migrant" anyway.
And I've known "expats" who moved to a country and stayed there for a decade or more. And yet they continued to call themselves (and be called by others) "expats"! I'm sure this had nothing to do with them being white and comparatively well-off. 
@KimSJ mind you, I am not saying that everyone who uses the term "expat" is necessarily a racist.
But the way the term "expat" is used compared with "economic migrant" is often racist.
It took me a while to figure this out too. In many ways it was easier to call myself "expat", join "expat" groups etc (I lived in Bosnia before I had moved to IS).
But then the refugee crisis hit a few years back and the difference in use between "expat" and "economic migrant" became too stark for me to ignore.
@rysiek I agree that the terms are often misused, but that is no reason to wrongly define the words. 
British retirees in Spain are not and should not be described as expats. They’ve clearly migrated to Spain. Conversely, Eastern Europeans who come here to work, fully expecting to go home at some point, should surely be called expats?
> Conversely, Eastern Europeans who come here to work, fully expecting to go home at some point, should surely be called expats?
Only if Hassan and other Brown people working the plantations in Spain can be called expats too:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/sep/20/we-pick-your-food-migrant-workers-speak-out-from-spains-plastic-sea
And yet nobody calls them that. They are *always*, *every single time*, referred to as "migrant workers" or "economic migrants".
Why is that, I wonder? 
@rysiek I completely agree that the misuse of the terms is almost entirely racist/political, and disgusting. I prefer to use the term expat wherever possible/accurate, because there is a general perception that expats are there to help the host country in some way (in Japan I was a client representative for a multi-million pound contract, for example), whereas economic migrants are there for their own selfish reasons, probably ‘taking advantage’ of the host.
@KimSJ would you call Hassan and other Brown people working the plantations in Spain "expats", then?
My point is, there is a problem with this term and how it is used, and the best way I can see of fixing that is by dropping that term. It does not bring anything valuable to the table.
It's way better to reclaim the term "migrant" to mean something positive, than to defend the term "expat". So I see no reason to defend it.
@KimSJ @rysiek not from Europe, but I find the same for USA citizens who move (temporally or indefinitely) to other countries: expats
Regardless of the "correct" definition, Americans don't call themselves migrants because that word is _reserved_ for those who come to "the land of the free and the braves" and it's not considered white. Racists don't have a minute to think if that person is here temporarily (B1/B2 or TN visa). Migrants are immediately tagged as criminal
@wim_v12e Do you intend to settle in UK permanently? If so, you are definitely a migrant. If you plan to move elsewhere at some point, I think you should more properly be considered an expat. The distinction is significant, because it speaks to the expectations of your future drain on health and care services, for example.
@richard_merren @wim_v12e @KimSJ exactly. And I prefer to try to make "migrant" and "us" word.
@rysiek @richard_merren @wim_v12e I see where you’re coming from, but you are losing the distinction between temporary and permanent migrants. Maybe that’s not important, but it feels to me that it does have some value.
@KimSJ @richard_merren @wim_v12e compared to the value of denying racists the ability to talk about certain type of migrant in a denigrating way, I don't think this value is that high.
And if you want to be able to keep it, just use — wait for it — "temporary migrant". It's literally the same syllable count as "economic migrant".
You also did not answer my question if you would call Hassan and other Brown people working the plantations in Spain "expats"?
@rysiek By my definition, yes, tey are certainly expats. But I agree ‘temporary migrant’ works as well, if not better.
@KimSJ and avoids the us-vs-them/racism-related issues with "expat", yes.
@KimSJ @rysiek @wim_v12e No. When I was a temporary worker in Central America, I was solidly an "expat" whereas I've never, ever heard the word applied to Central Americans I see here in Texas no matter what their intended or actual duration. Nobody calls an Indian or Chinese H1B worker or grad student in the US an expat. It's silly to pretend there is a precise dictionary definition at play here. These distinctions are not technical; they are social.
@rysiek @richard_merren The "us vs them" connotation is really strong. In Austria, there's this statistical category of people with a "migration background". Picture three people:
Person A: born abroad, both parents also born abroad
Person B: born in Austria, both parents born abroad, spent all their life in Austria
Person C: born in Austria, parents also born in Austria, spent most of their life abroad
One of these does not have a "migration background" according to the definition. Guess who.
@rysiek
I agree, it's an ingroup/outgroup thing and I would personally never call myself an "expat" for that reason, I hate that word. I have no problem with migrant. That's what I am and I think all countries need migrants.